Conference on Emerging Technologies in Accounting and Financial Economics

University of Southern California

Sept 12 13 2025 | Room TBD, Marshall School of Business, Los Angeles CA

Conference Program

Friday Sept 12 2025

Conference Check-in and Continental Breakfast

7:45 am: Conference Check-in and Continental Breakfast - Room TBD

Welcome Remarks

8:20 am: Welcome Remarks -- Jerry Hoberg & Lorien Stice-Lawrence

Session 1: TBD Presiding

  • 8:30 - 9:15 am: "Structured Beliefs and Fund Investment "
    Presenter: Wei Xiong (Princeton University)
    Seminar Format (45 minutes w/ audience Q&A)
  • 9:15 - 10:00 am: "The Dark Web and Capital Markets"
    Presenter: Brigham Brau (University of North Carolina)
    Seminar Format (45 minutes w/ audience Q&A)

Coffee Break

10:00 - 10:30 am: Coffee Break

Session 2: TBD Presiding

  • 10:30 - 11:15 am: "How Good is AI at Twisting Arms? Experiments in Debt Collection"
    Presenter: Dong Huang (Yale University)
    Discussant: Nick Guest (Cornell University)
  • 11:15 - 12:00 pm: "Reverse Engineering Innovation When Peers Possess Trade Secrets"
    Presenter: Jun Oh (Purdue University)
    Discussant: Daisy Wang (University of Southern California)

Lunch

12:00 - 1:00 pm: Lunch - Suryan Plaza

Session 3: TBD Presiding

  • 1:00 - 1:45 pm: "Industry Panel: Discussion of AI in Practice "
    Moderators: Ben Miao-Zhang (USC) and Lorien Stice-Lawrence (USC)
    Panelists: Jay Ghiya (Oaktree Capital), Ben Zweig (Revelio Labs), TBD (Cornerstone Research)
  • 1:45 - 2:30 pm: "Representations of Investor Beliefs"
    Presenter: Bradford Levy (University of Chicago)
    Discussant: Lin Peng (Baruch University)

Coffee Break

2:30 - 3:00 pm: Coffee Break

Session 4: TBD Presiding

  • 3:00 - 3:45 pm: "Fighting Climate Change with FinTech"
    Presenter: Alberto Rossi (Georgetown University)
    Discussant: Jung Ho Choi (Stanford University)
  • 3:45 - 4:30 pm: Keynote Address
    Professor Lauren Cohen
    L.E. Simmons Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School

Break

4:30 - 5:15 pm: Break (start walk to University Club at 5:05 pm)

Pre-Dinner Reception

5:15 - 6:00 pm: Predinner Reception - Amy King Dundon-Berchtold University Club of USC - Patio

Dinner

6:00 pm: Dinner - Amy King Dundon-Berchtold University Club of USC - Scriptorium Room

Saturday Sept 13 2025

Conference Check-in and Continental Breakfast

7:45 am: Conference Check-in and Continental Breakfast - Room TBD

Session 5: TBD Presiding

  • 8:15 - 9:00 am: "AI and the Extended Workday: Productivity, Contracting Efficiency, and Distribution of Rents"
    Presenter: Rachel Xiao (Fordham University)
    Seminar Format (45 minutes w/ audience Q&A)
  • 9:00 - 9:45 am: "Expert Networks as Information Intermediaries in Private Markets"
    Presenter: David Volant (Indiana University)
    Seminar Format (45 minutes w/ audience Q&A)

Coffee Break

9:45 - 10:15 am: Coffee Break

Session 6: TBD Presiding

  • 10:00 - 10:45 am: "Behavioral Economics of AI: LLM Biases and Corrections"
    Presenter: Lawrence Jin (Cornell University)
    Discussant: Devin Shanthikumar (University of California, Irvine)
  • 10:45 - 11:30 am: "Potential Activism and the Threat of Public Campaigns"
    Presenter: Carmen Payne-Mann (University of Southern California)
    Discussant: Chong Shu (University of Utah)

Closing Remarks

11:30 am: Closing Remarks

Box Lunch

11:40 am: Box Lunch - pick up in Popovich Hall (enjoy courtyard!)

Conference Details

Conference Organizers

Conference Support

Examples of Emerging Technologies Explored in CETAFE

  • AI
  • Large language models
  • Big Data
  • Blockchain
  • Algorithmic trading
  • Social media or social networks
  • Peer-to-peer lending, crowdsourcing & microfinance
  • Agent-based modeling
  • Mobile payment systems
  • Financial aggregators
  • Prediction Markets
  • Robo-advising
  • Satellite imaging and cellphone signals
  • Geolocation
  • FinTech Intermediaries (e.g. RobinHood)
  • Quantum computing
  • Machine learning
  • Voice or facial recognition
  • Crowdsourcing (e.g., Mechanical Turk for data collection)
  • Internet records (e.g., Google, EDGAR web-search data)
  • Valuation of human capital or intellectual capital
  • Innovative novel data new to the literature
  • Novel network settings or spatial models
  • Any other new technologies not listed!

Sponsors

  • The Institute for Outlier Research in Business
  • Marshall School of Business (Finance and Business Economics Department)
  • Leventhal School of Accounting
© 2025 Conference on Emerging Technologies in Accounting and Financial Economics